Lauro, De le lettere, Venice, 1553, contemporary Venetian black morocco gilt, dedication copy for Francesco Chimenti

8vo (150 x 100 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a⁸ A-P⁸: 128 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, some passages marked in ink and a few early marginal annotations. (Some light marginal dampstaining and spotting, very small wormtrack to quires F-G, pen trials to final verso.)

binding: Contemporary Venetian black morocco (159 x 109 mm), possibly by the Fugger Binder, multiple blind fillets around sides, fleuron at outer angles, rectangular frame formed 2 gilt fillets containing repeated gilt arabesque tool in central panel an undulating lozenge within frame with fleurons at the corners, in the centre a shield with a fleur-de-lys finial above containing the initials "F./CHI." on upper cover and left blank on lower cover, a rosette above and below, spine with 3 full and 4 false bands, blind leafy roll in compartments, stubs from 4 pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered, in a green cloth box with a leather spine. (Repaired hinges, with old repairs to corners and small parts of boards.)

provenance: Francesco Chimenti, Florentine nobleman to whom the work is dedicated, initials on binding—Librairie Théophile Belin, Livres des XVe et XVIe siècles dans leurs reliures originales (Paris 1914), item 205 and Pl. 46 (illustrated in catalogue)—Giuseppe Martini (1870-1944), Lugano bookseller, collation note to upper pastedown—clipping from a French auction catalogue, lot 179, glued to lower pastedown—Christie's, London, 27 November 1996, lot 388. acquisition: Purchased in 2019 from Mayfair Rare Books, London. references: Edit16 CNCE 35226; USTC 837649